For the second year in a row, the Mocs came up on the short end of a 4-3 men’s tennis match against Austin Peay. This time, it was an epic five and ½ hour battle at the Austin Peay Tennis Center in Clarksville, Tenn.

Chattanooga had a chance to win in the end with freshman Austin Boaz serving for the match at No. 6. Up 5-4 in the third set, he was unable to close out Evan Borowski, falling in a tiebreaker (6-3, 3-6, 6-5 (2)).

“It was a great match,” stated head coach Carlos Garcia. “We wanted to come home with a win, but they are one of the best teams in the Ohio Valley Conference and we competed with them right down to the wire.”

Garcia mixed up his doubles teams to open the match and the Mocs responded by winning the first point for the first time this season. Senior Jorge Varon and sophomore John Peacey defeated Jasmin Ademovic and Aleksas Tverijonas (6-5) by winning the tiebreaker 10-8 at No. 1. Junior Pavels Grigorjevs and sophomore Gino Delavalle beat James Mitchell and Evan Borowski (6-3) at No. 3.

Singles play was a fight from the beginning with five of the six bouts going three sets. The teams were playing on four courts, so the top four were in action first.

APSU took a 3-1 lead with wins in each of the top three matches. Delavalle was up 5-3 in the third against Iago Seffrin before Seffrin had to retire due to cramps. That made the score 3-2 and put the No. 5 and No. 6 individuals on the court.

Peacey evened the score at 3-3 with his win over Mitchell (6-0, 5-6 (2-7), 6-2) at No. 5. That set up Boaz’s match at No. 6. The freshman responded with a valiant effort in his first collegiate singles match.

The loss drops the Mocs to 1-3 on the season. Chattanooga returns home next weekend to host Belmont on Friday, Feb. 7. Match time is set for 5:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) at the Hixson Racquet Club with live scoring available on the men’s tennis schedule page on GoMocs.com.

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